


An experience richer or the start of something more

by lynxofspace



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-22 22:03:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23401105
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lynxofspace/pseuds/lynxofspace
Summary: Eddie's house gets damaged so him and Chris stay with Buck. // I'm not a writer, this is terrible. You've been warned.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley / Eddie Diaz
Comments: 4
Kudos: 97





	An experience richer or the start of something more

Buck turned from his back over to his side in his bed, and as his arm was about to hit the bed, it hit something else instead. Had he brought a girl home with him last night? He couldn’t remember, but he put his arm around her and fell back asleep.

Hours later he woke up and realized what he was spooning was not a girl, it was his best friend. Once his brain was awake enough to wonder why he was cuddling his best friend he got out of the bed and went downstairs to make some coffee. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t just wake Eddie and ask him.

As he walked over to his couch with a fresh cup of coffee he saw that it was already occupied. Christopher was fast asleep, and Buck didn’t have the heart to wake him either. 

After drinking his coffee in the kitchen, he decided it was time to wake Eddie. “Hey, Eddie, what’s going on?”

“Buck. I guess I have some explaining to do.” Eddie was a little groggy, but he was used to being woken up suddenly and early. 

“Kind of, yeah. I woke up in bed with my best friend, who I didn’t even know was in my apartment. I’ve been trying to come up with a reason for the past hour, but I can’t think of anything.”

“The house next to ours was on fire. They woke us up at 3am and told us to get out as fast as possible. Had it been just me I would have gone to work, but Chris has school today. I would have brought him to my abuela’s but Chris suggested we come here and it was closer so I kind of just drove here on autopilot. I’m sorry.” Eddie was rambling, panicking almost.

“Eddie, I’m glad you felt like you could come here.” Buck reassured him. “I was just surprised. Did you know we were spooning?”

“Yeah. I was still awake when you put your arm around me. I didn’t wanna fight it, besides, I kind of needed to feel safe.”

“Fire shook you?”

“I know we deal with that kind of stuff every day, but it’s different when it seeks you out, you know, when it comes into your home, where your child lives.”

“I can’t even imagine. At least the firefighters got there, though, right?”

“Yeah. When we left they were already putting out the fire, so hopefully our house is fine.”

“I’m sure it is. Do you wanna drive by on our way to work, see how bad it is? Or do you wanna take a day off?”

____

“I should ask Christopher how he's feeling first. Is he awake?”

"Last time I checked he was fast asleep, I didn't want to wake him."

"Thanks again, Buck, I'm glad I could take him somewhere he'd feel safe." Eddie was a lot calmer now than he had been when he first woke up.  
As they got ready to head downstairs they heard the TV turn on and a cartoon started playing.

"Hey, buddy, you're awake." Eddie walked over to Christopher to give him a hug.

"Yeah."

"How are you feeling?" Buck asked Chris

"I'm okay. Is it okay that we came here?"

"Of course, Chris, you can always come to me." Buck hugged Chris and then ruffled his hair.  
Eddie gave Buck a thankful smile. "Are you ready for school today, buddy?" He asked his son

"Yeah."

"Are you sure? I can take you to see that man you talked to after the tsunami if you want. Or I can try to take the day off and we can do something fun."

"I'll be fine, Dad, Thursdays are the best days."

"Okay, then let's get you some food."

"Already on it" Buck exclaimed from the kitchen.

\-----

"It's not that bad." Buck was walking through Eddie's house. They had decided to drive to work together and had already dropped Chris off at school. 

"It could have been worse." Eddie's house hadn't caught fire, but the entire house smelled like smoke and there were a couple of broken windows. "I'm glad all of Chris' stuff is okay. I know it's just stuff, but I don't want him to lose anything else, you know."

“Yeah.” Buck said, and left to check out the rest of the house.

"What happened here." A familiar voice asked

"Carla, I'm so sorry, I must have forgotten to text you. I already took Chris to school." 

"Never mind that, is your house okay? 'Cause the one next door sure as hell isn't."

"Mostly. This smell though, one more thing I have to deal with."

"Aren't you a firefighter? Shouldn't you be used to the smell?"

"Believe it or not, we don't get that many fires."

"In any case, I'll call some people, see what I can do."

"I don't know what I would do without you Carla."

"You're lucky I love you and that boy." She said jokingly, "So what happened exactly?"

"I'm not sure, I was just so focused on getting Chris out of there, I didn't really ask any questions. I'll make some calls at work today."

"Wait, Chris was home when it happened?"

"Yeah, we were both asleep. We're lucky LAFD is the best in the country. Got here fast and made sure our house didn't catch fire."

"He must have been so scared."

"He seems okay, we went to Buck's place."

"You woke Buck up in the middle of the night? He must have been happy."

"No, uh, I actually have a key."

"So you broke into his apartment in the middle of the night, that's much better."

"Hey, I heard my name" Buck entered from the bathroom

"Buckaroo! Did he really sneak into your apartment in the middle of the night?

"Yeah, I woke up with my arm around him." Buck bumped his shoulder on Eddie's

"Should I be prepared for you to tell everyone that story?" Eddie gave him a look of disappointment

"I think it's cute!" Carla interjected. "Although I think I would have asked my friend before getting into bed with them."

"My brain was all over the place. I looked for a mattress but I couldn't find anything and the bed just looked so comfortable."

"It's okay, it's not even the first time he comes over without my knowledge."

"Anyway, Carla, I'm gonna try to get off work early, but if you could pick Chris up from school that would be great."

"Of course, but where should I take him? The station?" 

"Right. Take him to my Tía, I guess. I'll have to figure out where we're gonna stay until this place doesn't smell like an ashtray."

"What do you mean? You're staying at my place." Buck hadn't meant to sound hurt, but he did.

"Buck, you don't have space for us."

"Sure I do, it worked just fine tonight. It's not like we spend that much time at home anyway and it's just for a few days, right?"

"That's true. I guess I could get a mattress and sleep downstairs with Christopher."

"What is it with boys and not sharing beds? I always share a bed with my girlfriends. Is it a just in case the other one is secretly gay kind of thing?" Carla gave them both a disapproving look.

"What? No. I don't know. I don't care if Buck is gay. I don't know what the deal is." Eddie looked confused

"I'm not gay... Except for a couple of nights in college." Buck winked and started heading towards the door. "Almost forgot; here, Carla, take my key and take Chris there after school. Make  
yourself at home. We'll be home as soon as we can." 

"Right, work." Eddie followed Buck outside and got in the driver seat of the car.

_____

“Are you sure you’re okay with sharing your bed?” Eddie felt like he was imposing enough just by being at the apartment.

They had put Christopher to bed on the couch an hour earlier. Buck had put up a blanket to give him some privacy. Chris loved his little “cave.” 

Buck’s apartment wasn’t huge and the only other places to hang out were the kitchen and the bed. They had spent an hour in the kitchen with a couple of beers discussing their busy day at work before they decided to just tuck in early. 

“Of course.” Buck replied as he finished brushing his teeth. “Or are you worried because of that joke I told Carla.”

“Am I worried you will touch me in my sleep? Of course not.” Eddie laid down on Buck’s fluffy mattress. 

“Then why make it a bigger deal than it has to be? She’s a wise woman, she’s got a point. If women share beds, then why can’t men.” Buck laid down next to him and turned off the light.

“You’re right.” Eddie rolled over to his left side, facing the stairs. 

“Good night, Eddie.”

“Good night, Buck.”

Eddie rolled back over to face Buck, but couldn’t tell if he was asleep or not. He whispered “Hey, Buck. Did you really sleep with guys in college?”

“I fooled around with this one dude a couple of times, yeah, and made out with a couple more. College stuff. Why?”

“Just curious.”

“Oh, right, you didn’t go to college.”

“I went straight into the military, though something tells me you and I would have very differnet college experiences.” Eddie’s tone was hard to read. “What was it like?”

“College?”

“The fooling around.”

“I mean it was meaningless..” he hushed his voice even more, even though he knew Chris topher was fast asleep “….sex. It felt like meaningless sex.”

“The same as with any of the random girls you’ve been with?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“Then how come you’ve only ever been with girls since?”

“I never really tought about it. I didn’t seek him out last time, he came to me because he was unsure of his sexuality and I was the only one willing to experiment. He’s gay now, by the way.”

“So you’ve never had feelings for a man.”

“Not that I can remember. What’s with all the questions, Eddie?”

“I don’t know, I never realized I missed out of stuff like this. Until today I hadn’t even considered the possibility of being into men, but ever since this morning that’s all I’ve been able to think about.” 

“Are you saying you might be into guys?”

“I’m saying how can I know for sure? I always knew I liked women so I never thought to question whether I liked men too.” Eddie was wide awake. “Do you ever see a guy and think ‘damn that’s a good looking guy’?”

“Of course. Eddie, have you ever looked in the mirror?” Buck tried to lighten the conversation, he had always been uncomfortable with talking about his feelings. 

“I’m serious, Buck.”

“Of course I find men attractive sometimes, doesn’t everybody?”

“That’s the thing, though, I’ve never even thought about it.”

“Then why are you so worried about this?”

“I just don’t want to wake up one day when I’m 80 and feel like i missed out.”

“Well, there’s one way to know for sure, and I’m up for it if you are.”

“My son is asleep right beneath us.”

“I obviously didn’t mean right this very moment, just if you still feel this way in a couple of days.”

“Okay.”

“Now good night, Eddie.” Buck turned back around. “We have to get up in 5 hours.”

“Good night.”

____

They didn’t continue the conversation in the morning, they got Chris ready for school and themselves ready for work. They didn’t talk about it at work either. Nor did they talk about it that weekend when they took Chris to the zoo and then to a playdate with Denny at Hen and Karen’s place. 

Monday morning came and Eddie and Christopher were still staying with Buck. Eddie’s place was supposed to be ready by today but they hadn’t heard anything yet. 

They went to work as usual and responded to a call where an old couple were torn apart by unfortunate circumstances.

When they got back to the station Eddie decided he was done waiting. He followed Buck into the locker room and kissed him right then and there. 

He hadn’t been able to think about anything else since that night in bed. He had wanted to do it every minute of every day since. He didn’t know why. He didn’t know what he expected. He didn’t know what he was hoping for. 

It was more than he was hoping for. 

“Damn.” Was all Buck could say when Eddie finally let him go. 

“Yeah.” Eddie whispered and looked at Buck for what to him felt like an eternity. “I mean, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that here. I know it’s not what you had in mind when we had that conversation last week.”

“What conversation?” 

“Um.”

“I’m just messing with you. And no, it’s fine. Did it help?”

“I think I’m more confused now than before.”

Eddie was relieved to hear the alarm go off. He wasn’t ready for the rest of this conversation.

_________

Buck had not been expecting Eddie to kiss him. He figured Eddie had let the whole thing go since he hadn’t taken Buck up on his offer. Buck was not prepared. Not for the kiss and definitely not for the feelings that came afterwards. 

The alarm gave him some time to think about it all, he wasn’t focused at all when he helped the woman out of the crashed car. Luckily there were just minor injuries. He found himself staring at Eddie whenever he wasn’t looking and Buck didn’t have anything else to do. Had he always had these feelings for Eddie? 

The two got a few minutes together when they drove an unconscious victim to the hospital, but neither of them were ready for the conversation. 

___

They got off their shift early that day and were back at the apartment a couple of hours before Chris was done at school.

“What do we do while we wait?” Buck didn’t have much in terms of entertainment. “Movie or video games?”

Eddie kissed him. 

“We could do that.” Buck said and kissed Eddie again. 

They moved towards the couch until Buck fell onto it and Eddie went with him. 

____

They were still making out when they heard the knock on the door. 

Buck got up and opened the door. He was surprised to see Chris and Carla. “Did you pick him up early? Did something happen?”

“What do you mean? It’s 5pm, we even stopped for ice cream. Don’t tell Eddie.” Carla said. “Where is Eddie?”

“He’s here, we were watching a movie.” Buck said and helped Chris carry his stuff inside. 

Carla gave him a look and when Chris was out of hearing distance she said “I thought you had a girl over, you have bed hair.”

“Oh, I took a nap earlier.” Buck explained. 

“Uh huh. So what movie were you watching? Maybe I’ll stay and watch the end.“ She said, clearly not believing a word.

Buck closed the door behind him so Eddie wouldn’t hear. “We made out, okay? You can’t tell anyone. I shouldn’t even be telling you.”

“I was always rooting for the two of you.”

“Other people have said similar things. I’m not sure why.”

“You two just.. work.” She said with a smile. “Anyway, I should get going.” 

-

“You told her, didn’t you?” Eddie said as Buck entered the apartment, he had turned on the tv for Chris and was standing in the kitchen.

“I’m really bad at keeping secrets. And she saw my hair. You’d think you’d need a bed to have bed hair.”

“What now?”

“Relax. I told her not to tell anyone.”

“I mean us.”

“Now we go watch some cartoons with your son.”

-

“Does this make me bi?” Eddie asked as he pulled his duvet up and fell onto the pillow. 

“If you want a label, sure.” Buck was still brushing his teeth

“You don’t?”

“I’ve never liked them.” Buck put his toothbrush back in the toothbrush holder. “Maybe I just haven’t let myself get comfortable with one.”

“I get it.”

Buck finally got under the covers and made himself comfortable. “Should we like.. go on a date? Or do we jump straight into a relationship?”

Eddie looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling.

“Or are we not on the same page here?” Buck added

“No, we are. I’m just not a guy who just jumps into relationships.” Eddie said. 

“Right, you’ve got a kid to worry about.” 

“Yeah.”

“So what do you suggest?”

“Taking it slow for a few days, see how we feel?” Eddie phrased it as a question.

“Sure.” Buck was more than okay with that. He didn’t have the best experience with relationships either. 

-

A week of locker room kisses and make out sessions in bed passed in no time, and every morning they woke up slightly closer to each other. Eddie had gotten the call that his house was ready the night before, but he didn’t have the energy to deal with it since they had just gotten off a long shift.

“I can’t believe that was our last night together.” Buck said as he made the realization. “I’m gonna miss this.”

“I know, me too.” Eddie’s head was resting on Buck’s arm.

“I was kind of hoping you would just stay here forever.”

“I love your apartment, but Chris needs his room back.”

“I know, I know.”

“What if we packed up your stuff too?” Eddie said, as if the idea had just struck him.

“You mean move in with you?” Buck wasn’t quite sure what to make of that offer. “You don’t have a spare room.”

“We’ve been sharing for two weeks and it’s been fine. Plus, my room actually has a door.”

“Eddie, are you sure about this?”

“Why not?”

“Eddie, I need you to be 100% sure. Last week you weren’t even sure you wanted a relationship, now you want a live-in boyfriend? Or was this a platonic thing in your head?”

“I want you. I know that much.”

“People will have questions.”

“I’m ready for them. I’m ready to go public. I just want to tell Chris first.”

-

“Hey, Christopher, can we talk to you for a second?”

Chris had just woken up, and was still a little groggy. “Sure, dad.”

“Buck and I are in a relationship.” Eddie said, while looking at Chris to judge his reaction.

“I know, dad.”

“You do? How?” 

“I’m not dumb, I hear things.”

“Are you okay with that?” Buck asked.

“Yeah” Chris said.

“Would you be okay with Buck moving in with us?”

“Yeah!” Chris exclaimed. “As long as I get to keep my room.”

“Of course.” Buck said.

“Are you two gonna get married?” Chris asked.

“We’re not quite there yet, Bud.” Buck said.

“You should.”

-

“I’m glad Chris approves.” Buck said as soon as they got back in the car after dropping him off at school. 

“He loves you, of course he was gonna approve.”

“I love him too.”

-

“Hello 118. Eddie and I have an announcement to make!” Buck said as he entered the common area of the fire house. “Is everyone here?”

Hen, Chimney and Bobby all gave him disapproving looks.

“What?”

“You don’t need to announce your announcement, it’s just the 5 of us.” Hen said.

“My house is finally done, and Buck is moving in with me and Chris.”

“What?” Hen said.

“I wanted to tell them.” Buck said.

“Well you took too long.” Eddie said.

“What does that mean?” Bobby said. “Like a roommate or?”

“Like boyfriends.” Buck said proudly. “That’s what we are. Boyfriends.”

Their heads turned to Eddie. 

“What he said.” Eddie said.

“Congratulations!” Hen said.

“I’m happy for you.” Bobby said.

“Me too!” Chim said. “Though I’m surprised Maddie didn’t tell me about this.”

“Oh crap. Maddie.” Buck said. “Nobody tell her, okay? I’ll invite her to lunch and tell her myself.”

“How long has this been going on?” Hen asked.

-

“What’s up?” Maddie said as she sat down at the café.

“What do you mean? Can’t I just want to have lunch with my sister?” Buck sat down across from her. 

“Yes, but I know that look.” 

“Fine.” Buck sighed. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m moving in with my boyfriend and his kid.”

“That’s great.”

“You knew? Chim told you?”

“You told Chim before you told me? And no, I didn’t know, I’m just not surprised.”

“Kind of. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“Now what do you mean you’re not surprised?”

“I’ve seen you two exchange looks. And when I first moved here you couldn’t stop talking about him.”

“When you moved here I had just met Eddie.”

“And you had a crush on right from the start.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Well if I did, I wasn’t aware of it.”

“That’s a different story.” Maddie gave him the biggest smile. “I really am happy for you, though. I can’t wait to visit.”

“You know, if Eddie and I get married, you and Chim will officially be the only ones who don’t have kids.” Buck joked. 

“Oh shut up.”

—

“Welcome home!” Eddie said as they walked into the house together.

“I can’t believe I live here now.”

“It’s gonna be great.” Chris said.

“It’s gonna be amazing!” Buck said and ruffled his hair.

Eddie smiled at the two of them. “Chris, go put your stuff in your room. Carla’s gonna be here to pick you up any minute.” 

“Okay, dad.”

“Buck and I will start unpacking.”

“Where do we start?” Buck said, looking around the room. A lot of Eddie’s stuff was in boxes too, since the cleaners hadn’t known where to put it. 

“How about the bedroom?” Eddie said and winked.

“Sure! Oh. You mean…”

“Yeah.”

-

As soon as the door closed behind Chris and Carla, Buck grabbed Eddie and kissed him. They made their way towards Eddie’s bedroom, dropping their clothes on the floor along the way.

Eddie fell onto the bed first and Buck took a minute to take in the sight. “I love you.” He said. He knew it was soon, probably too soon for Eddie, but in that moment he knew. And he just had to say it.

Eddie smiled. “I love you too.”

“Really? ‘cause you don’t have to say it just because I did.”

“Really.” Eddie’s smile grew bigger. “Now come here!” He grabbed Buck’s arm and pulled him onto the bed. Onto him.

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry


End file.
